Learning about SEIA Chapters. I have spoken to many people in and around State SEIA chapters. One thing that becomes clear early in the conversation is that SEIA chapters and national SEIA are separate entities. No sharing of revenues, no flow of funding and oftentimes separate policy intiatives. In the latest episode of EnergyWakeup, Rebecca Cantwell from CO SEIA spoke about the dockets in Colorado. While CO SEIA intervened in all three dockets, SEIA also intervened in two dockets. Our industry is already stretched on resources of time and money, are we really that divided that National and Colorado associations need to intervene separately? Especially in a State like Colorado that is operated with an executive director and solid membership base, couldn’t SEIA help funding the intervention instead?
Getting more money to States. We know we need more money for State policy fights. We also need more money to make State chapters stronger. There needs to be a more transactional approach between SEIA with a $10 million budget and States like Colorado that only have a $250 thousand dollar budget. The question is, where can the money come from? States have the problem when pitching national companies that they are already members at SEIA and some paying $150k to be on the board. Don’t get me wrong, I understand the point the companies have and that there are limited sources of money to go around. There is a pot of money available though, read more below the pitch.
Are you offering storage for your solar projects in California? I want to hear from you. In the near future, I will be doing a learning tour and meeting with contractors and developers throughout California working in and around energy storage. 
How to give money to State Chapters. 38% of SEIA’s budget comes from SPI according to the 2015 filing. SPI is the lifeblood of the solar industry when it comes to budgets, much like the State conferences are for State Chapters. SPI actually makes double the amount that goes to SEIA, half of the profits go to SEPA. SEPA got $3.7million from SPI in 2015 which was about 56% of their revenues and less than $1million in revenues came from members as opposed to SEIA’s $5.7million dollars. I’ve been to SPI and one thing is certain, board members of SEIA have much bigger booths than SEPA’s board members. A 50/50 split between SEIA and SEPA doesn’t seem like a fair arrangement anymore. SEPA probably agrees with this given the demographic of the exhibitors and attendees are strongly slanted towards SEIA. If the split were to change, as it should, use that pool of capital to fund a matching pool to State chapters. Bring temporary EDs to new States and get more local companies involved in policy. More on these topics this week.
Make sure you listen to the latest episodes of EnergyWakeup. Listen to the importance of State level solar policy from Rebecca Cantwell, the executive director of COSEIA. And hear from solar entrepreneur, John Gurski, the founder of Energy Toolbase, a cloud based analytics and proposal tool.

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Yann

Happy Cinco de Mayo and have a great weekend!
A new mile high podcast. We continue the conversation with State SEIA chapters, this time with Rebecca Cantwell from COSEIA. Colorado has been in the news recently with a settlement that took nearly a year and got Colorado back on the right track to get back into the Top 10 solar States. One thing that is glaringly obvious is the need for more funding. COSEIA makes most of its money from its great conference but even after that revenue it is less than $300 thousand per year to run the entire association. Compared to the millions spent by utilities, how can COSEIA compete? As an industry, we must figure out a way to arm our advocates with more. Just look at Florida’s victory from yesterday. The press release came from Vote Solar and SEIA, not from the State level chapter.
Ivanka’s influence. The President’s daughter will be heading to the EPA and meeting with Scott Pruitt to discuss the Paris agreement. I don’t really have any commentary, just summarizing the article.
Are you offering storage for your solar projects in California? I want to hear from you. In the near future, I will be doing a learning tour and meeting with contractors and developers throughout California working in and around energy storage. 
Power to the people. The era of big energy storage costs are over but we cannot go back to letting utilities add fixed fees to the bills. SGIP in California is going to drive the volume of storage up and bring a new pipeline of storage deals to the market. Who is financing this? Is it all cash? PACE? SGIP levels will decline and possible run through funds relatively fast, less than a year perhaps.
Make sure you listen to the latest episodes of EnergyWakeup. Listen to the importance of State level solar policy from Rebecca Cantwell, the executive director of COSEIA. And hear from solar entrepreneur, John Gurski, the founder of Energy Toolbase, a cloud based analytics and proposal tool.

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Have a great day!
Yann

Rebecca Cantwell is the Executive Director of COSEIA, one of the best State level trade associations. Rebecca has been the director for 5 years and brought COSEIA through a multitude of regulatory issues. With a small budget of about $250,000, COSEIA brings results in a true David versus Goliath fight. COSEIA is an independent entity. It may be listed as an affiliated partner, COSEIA does not report to or receive funding from SEIA. This is a separation that has been made clear to SolarWakeup by many State SEIA groups. Most recently, COSEIA was in the room where it happens. Negotiating with Xcel Energy in Colorado has been a nearly yearlong effort. Through many full days of sitting in Xcel conference rooms, COSEIA was an intervenor in all three solar related dockets. The group came to a settlement which had some positive effects which Rebecca covers in great specificity in our conversation. What struck me is that even though COSEIA was an intervenor, SEIA also deployed resources by intervening in two of the dockets. That means COSEIA and SEIA were duplicating efforts, representing their own memberships. I would see it more effective to send capital to the State and align the interests of both SEIA entities. In the coming weeks, we will be speaking with more State level directors on how the State level chapters are driving their markets forward. If you enjoyed this episode as much as I did, make sure to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform including iTunes, SoundCloud and Stitcher radio. Please subscribe and share with your friends how much EnergyWakeup is helping you! [soundcloud id='320989248' height='false'] Rebecca Cantwell is the Executive Director of COSEIA, one of the best State level trade associations. Rebecca has been the director for 5 years and brought COSEIA through a multitude of regulatory issues. With a small budget of about $250,000, COSEIA brings results in a true David versus Goliath fight. COSEIA is an independent entity. It may be listed as an affiliated partner, COSEIA does not report to or receive funding from SEIA. This is a separation that has been made clear to SolarWakeup by many State SEIA groups. Most recently, COSEIA was in the room where it happens. Negotiating with Xcel Energy in Colorado has been a nearly yearlong effort. Through many full days of sitting in Xcel conference rooms, COSEIA was an intervenor in all three solar related dockets. The group came to a settlement which had some positive effects which Rebecca covers in great specificity in our conversation. What struck me is that even though COSEIA was an intervenor, SEIA also deployed resources by intervening in two of the dockets. That means COSEIA and SEIA were duplicating efforts, representing their own memberships. I would see it more effective to send capital to the State and align the interests of both SEIA entities. In the coming weeks, we will be speaking with more State level directors on how the State level chapters are driving their markets forward. If you enjoyed this episode as much as I did, make sure to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform including iTunes, SoundCloud and Stitcher radio. Please subscribe and share with your friends how much EnergyWakeup is helping you! [soundcloud id='320989248' height='false']

Seeing the bigger picture. I was pretty upset at Suniva last week. I’ve spent my days and nights looking at the filings, speaking to experts and trying to understand the various issues. When it came down to it, Suniva didn’t have a choice. Either they shut the door and walked away or took the chapter 11 money. From a fiduciary standpoint, I don’t think employees had a choice. SQN was the available lender and their caveat was filing the 201 petition. I am certain that given the choice, Suniva would have chosen an alternative path. As I continue my work, I need to hear from you and your ideas. We have to look at every opportunity to stop the petition to help our industry. This is an issue to affects us all, do not ignore this. At the very least look at your projects and change your module assumption to a $0.78/watt price and tell me what it does for you.
Tax Free Florida. Voters in Florida overwhelmingly voted to pass a tax exemption for commercial solar, fixing a mistake from a constitutional amendment voted on 10 years ago. The bill isn’t perfect, hasn’t left the legislature and it isn’t signed by the Governor but it looks promising. Baby steps, one foot in front of another, or whatever metaphor you like.
Are you offering storage for your solar projects in California? I want to hear from you. In the near future, I will be doing a learning tour and meeting with contractors and developers throughout California working in and around energy storage. 
Utilities versus IPPs. There is a circuit including talking points in the wholesale markets. IPPs have been speaking at energy conferences and they are not happy with the zero emission credits given to nuclear power plant operators. Specifically Dynegy believes that the ZECs given to Exelon in Illinois is a bailout that will cause the markets to stop functioning because it absorbs the valuable capacity value. It’s happened at two conferences that I read about, we shall see if it happens again.
Make sure you listen to the latest episodes of EnergyWakeup. Hear from solar entrepreneur, John Gurski, the founder of Energy Toolbase, a cloud based energy bill analytics and proposal tool. I also speak with Tony Clifford from Standard Solar about being acquired by Gaz Metro and his work at SEIA.

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Have a great day!
Yann